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Address 



Delivered in the Central Park of the 
City of New York, 



ON THE 



TWENTY-SECOND DAY OF NOVEMBER, iSSo, 



ON 



The Erection and Presentation to the City of New 

York, by John C. Hamilton, Esq., of the 

Statue of his Father, 



Alexander Hamilton 



If 



,t^- 



Benjamin Harris Brewster, 



r. 



OF PHILADELPHIA. 



PHILADELPHIA: , 

ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT'S PRINTING HOUSE, 
229-231 South Fifth Street. 

1880. 



/ 



■'6? 



The ceremony of unveiling the statue of Alexander Hamil- 
ton, the gift of John C. Hamilton, son of the statesman, to the 
city, took place the afternoon of November 22d, at Central 
Park, New York, in the presence of a large number of spec- 
tators. The Society of Cincinnati, St. Andrew's Society, 
Society of Engineers, St. Nicholas Society, and the Hamilton 
Literary Society, and other organizations were represented. 
At 2 o'clock President Stennan, of the Park Department, in- 
troduced Mr. John C. Hamilton, who made the presentation 
address. The statue was accepted on behalf of the city by 
Mayor Cooper. Hon. Benjamin Harris Brewster, of Philadel- 
phia, delivered a discourse on the life and public services of 
Hamilton. His address was as follows : — 

DISCOURSE. 

It is a difficult thing to do that which I have been deputed 
to do. The career of this wonderful man, whose statue you 
are now about to see unveiled, is full of conspicuous historical 
events. It is impossible to relate his life, or even to sketch an 
outline of his remarkable thoughts and deeds without repeat- 
ing the history of our country. He took part in the first utter- 
ances of remonstrance and proposed resistance to the arbitrary 
acts of the Mother Country, and from that moment down to 
the fatal end of his great and useful life, he was personally 
associated with many of the prominent and triumphant results 
of that, great Revolution, and when our independence was 
secured he was the father and author of the main principles of 
our National Constitution. 

' The Government was established chiefly by his efforts. As 
the Financial Minister of President Washington he organized 
the action and guided the Executive and other functionaries in 
the inauguration and administration of the first constitutional, 
democratic Republic that had ever existed. How, then, in the 
presence of all these startling and wonderful events, associated 
with the actings and doings of the great and good who were 
the actors, can I be able to compress the object of this dis- 
course within convenient limits ? It is hardly possible, and 



79 



yet I must attempt it. Those I address must help me, and 
with their memories suppl)' all I am obliged to omit, and thus 
complete in their own minds that which will only be an imper- 
fect and shadowy sketch. 

The whole subject thus considered is majestic and colossal. 
The magnitude and grandeur of it overawes me — Alexander 
Hamilton is the glory of this nation. Jurists, statesmen, and 
philosophers of all nations will honor and reverence his name. 
He will be ranked with the greatest and wisest philosophers 
and lawgivers. Solon and Lycurgus and Aristotle " could 
have sat down with him and found in him a kindred spirit." 
We are almost too near to him to fully take in the vast dimen- 
sins of his almost superhuman wisdom and genius. Time, like 
distance, can alone display to men the magnitude and height 
of his Avorks and thoughts. " In general, he has been little 
weighed and appraised, and in points only — never as a whole. 
His due valuation he will first find in the diamond scales of 
posterity." In this one of the greatest of cities he has ever 
been reverenced. 

John C. Hamilton, a surviving son, to-day, with filial piety 
and gratitude for your veneration of his father, bestows upon 
you this just resemblance of him whose gentle care he lost at 
the threshold of his boyhood. This work is to give to you 
and to posterity some memorial of his presence and bearing, 
so that men hereafter may see what manner of man he was, to 
w^hom such honor is due and from whom we have received so 
much. 

Let me tell you who he was. He was of a historic and 
noble race of men. His father was a Scot. His mother French. 
A happy mixture of blood, conferring qualities that were con- 
spicuous in his whole career. He was born on the nth of 
January, 1757, in Nevis, one of the smallest of the Leeward 
Islands, a possession of the British crown. Early in life he 
was left an orphan. His means were slender. Obeying the 
impulse of his nature, which is in the spirit of his people, in 
his boyhood he sought and obtained employment. It was not 
in his temper to eat the bread of idle dependence ; occupation 
and usefulness were essential to his very existence. Dignity 
and independence were the laws of his being, and imparted 



force and power to all that he did. When he was twelve years 
old he entered the counting-house of a merchant, and soon 
commanded the confidence of his employer, who, when absent, 
committed his whole affairs to his control. 

In this, as in every pursuit he adopted, he displayed aptitude 
and industry. Incessant, continuous, conscientious labor was 
the rule of his life. It was soon plain to those about him and 
around him that he possessed a superior mind that needed and 
demanded an opportunity for instruction and learning to com- 
plete his education. 

In 1772 he was sent to New York, and there he entered 
Kings College (now Columbia College), and while there he 
was the most diligent of students. In 1774, when he was but 
seventeen years old, a great meeting was held to protest against 
the policy and action of the British Government. After others 
had spoken, urged by his convictions and zeal for the cause of 
the country, he arose to speak, and by the magic of his words 
and the justice of his thoughts excited the wonder and applause 
of all. 

This was followed by a series of articles written by him in 
defense of the country, the authorship of which being unknown 
was imputed to men of established reputation and ability. 
Those who will read them now will be amazed, as people were 
then, when they learned they were the production of a college 
boy. As I read them they startled me by their concise clear- 
ness of expression and precocious wisdom. I am almost 
tempted to cite here the passages I had marked ; I can only 
ask you to read them, that you may be filled with the same 
sense of wonder that all have felt who have read them. 

When remonstrance repelled ended in resistance, he at once 
sought and obtained a company of artillery ; in command of 
this he served with skill and conspicuous courage. He was 
then but nineteen. He is thus described as he marched 
through Princeton: "This company was a model of discipline, 
At their head was a boy, and I wondered at his youth ; but 
what was my surprise when, struck with his slight figure, he 
was pointed out to me as that Hamilton of whom we had 
always heard so much. He was a youth, a mere stripling, 
small, slender, almost delicate in frame, marching beside a 



piece of artillery, with a cocked hat pulled down over his eyes, 
apparently lost in thought, with his hand resting on a cannon, 
and every now and then patting it as if it were a favorite horse 
or a pet plaything." At the head of this company he con- 
tinued until March, 1777, when, by special request of Wash- 
ington, he accepted a place on his staff as aid, with the rank 
of Lieutenant-Colonel. Transferred thus from the line of 
active service in the field, he took his stand close by the side 
of the General-in-Chief, and forthwith obtained and retained 
his entire confidence. 

I shall not detail the multitude of important and critical 
affairs that were committed to him in the dark and dismal 
days of his military life. Affairs that relate to the regulation 
and disposition of the army and its commanders, to intercourse 
with foreign courts, to intercourse with Congress and other 
public authorities, and to and with individuals interested in 
and connected with the cause of the country. That can not 
be done here. The correspondence of Washington with all of 
these important persons, and on all of these serious subjects, was 
committed to him and executed by him, and as they are read 
they excite wonder at his prodigious knowledge and forecast. 
They would be pronounced the work of a great mind had 
they been written by a mature man ; but when it is remem- 
bered that he began this service at the age of nineteen, and 
ended it when he was but twenty-two, we are filled with 
amazement. I can not recount them or even do more than 
mention them in a cursory way as I have done. 

While thus in his youth two things were suggested by him 
that have since been accepted and applied both in this and in 
other countries, the public advantage of which all have expe- 
rienced, and they were these : When commanding his artillery 
company, and but nineteen, by a letter to Congress he sug- 
gested the promotion from the lowest grade of service as the 
reward of merit, and as an incentive to brave deeds excited by 
high and honorable hopes. His suggestion was adopted. 
Again, when he was but twenty-two, in a letter to Colonel 
Laurens of South Carolina he proposed to raise battalions of 
negroes, pointing out how their very habits of servile obedi- 
ence fitted them for subordination, and prepared them for 



5 

the duties of soldiers, and then he ended his suggestions by 
saying: "An essential part of the plan is to give them their 
freedom with their swords. This will secure their fidelity, ani- 
mate their courage, and, I believe, will have a good influence 
upon those who remain by opening the way to emancipation. 
This circumstance, I confess, has no small weig^ht in inducing 
me to wish the success of the project, for the dictates of 
humanity and wise policy equally interest me in favor of this 
unfortunate class of men." In 1781 he resigned from the staff 
and accepted a commission of Lieutenant-Colonel, and in the 
same year joined the army and obtained the command of a 
battalion of New York troops, which became a part of the ad- 
vanced corps, and when the British forces entered Virginia he 
followed the army to Yorktown with his command, and then 
signalized himself by acts of daring personal courage, and took 
part in the memorable surrender of the Earl of Cornwallis. 
This closed his military life. 

The war was soon ended, and he returned to civil life and 
pursuits. In this city he prosecuted the study of the law, was 
admitted to the bar, and at one step assumed the leadership 
in that profession. Independence had been secured, but with 
it came a host of dreadful evils. The whole social, commer- 
cial, and political order and economy of society was in confu- 
sion approaching anarchy. The currency was worthless and 
all standard measures of value had been destroyed. Debtors 
were penniless and creditors without remedy. The very foun- 
dations of society were shaken. The States asserted the 
shadow of public authority for local purposes, and the Con- 
gress of the Confederation was without means or credit and 
too feeble to enforce its enactments. The army was in a state 
of mutiny and destitution. They were, indeed, dark days. 
For a season despair possessed almost all men. The liberties 
we had secured we were powerless to maintain and too pros- 
trate to enjoy. Hamilton never despaired. The causes of this 
distress he had considered and the necessary relief he had 
brought forward. When he was but twenty-two years old he 
wrote to Robert Morris, then a delegate in Congress, a letter 
expounding fully his views on the subject of the finances of 



the country, and suggested that a foreign loan was the only 
means of relief, and in the next year, on the 3d of September, 
1780, when he was but twenty -three years old, he laid before 
^Mr. James Duane, a member of Congress from this city, his 
plan for organizing the Government of this people on a firm 
and stable foundation. 

He had at that early age fathomed the whole subject, and 
with a force of reason that was his great gift he set forth in 
clear and well-defined words the public wants of the confed- 
erate colonies. It is a profound and searching exposition of 
the actual state of things, and it gives the ruling features of 
that plan of union which was afterward adopted and under 
which we now live. It was the first draft of a great title-deed, 
conveying supreme popular power to a government created 
by the people for the public good. I do not use an exagge- 
rated expression when I say that it was an astounding work 
of knowledge, wisdom, and genius. It is an unexampled doc- 
ument. There is not another like it in the records of this 
world's history. And by a youth of twenty-three years ! The 
plan of the Constitution which he afterward propounded in the 
Convention, and of which I shall presently speak, was but an 
elaboration and more detailed proposal of the same thoughts 
and ideas. 

Impressed, as by a supernatural call, with a sense of the 
duty that was set before him — his appointed task — his mission 
— he began the work of construction. With this disintegrated, 
chaotic condition of bewildered colonies, walking with totter- 
ing steps in the pathways of public authority — with this con- 
fused and anxious body of unhappy and enfeebled communi- 
ties he proposed to deal. They were to be the subjects of his 
intellectual and moral care. He knew what had been before 
attempted from time to time, with the same material, in the 
early days of their colonial life. But then they were crawling 
in their infancy, then they were the subjects of the crown, 
then they were free from the sorrows of that tribulation which 
they had passed through and were now bending under. Now 
we were independent and must take our place among nations. 
The necessities of the Colonies had in former times united 
them. In 1643 they had a compact that continued for forty 



years, and it was for deliberating on all matters of peace and 
common concern, and to provide against impending wars — a 
league offensive and defensive. 

After this, in 1754, at the instance of the Mother Country, a 
Congress was convened to provide for the necessities of the 
French war, and this Congress proposed a plan of union that 
was not accepted by the Colonies and was rejected by the 
crown. In 1765, Massachusetts invited a Congress of the 
Colonies to digest a Bill of Rights and deny the power of tax- 
ation to the British crown, and this was followed by the Con- 
gress of 1774, and that by the Confederation of 1778, under 
which we were living when the ratification of peace was ob- 
tained in 1788. With his voice and his pen he labored inces- 
santly to impress upon the people the necessity of establishing 
a permanent and supreme government as the only means of 
restoring order and maintaining the independence we had 
fought for and won. 

yj Here in this State he organized the action of its public 
authorities to aid in effecting his purpose. He was sent to the 
Congress of the Confederation, and there with earnest, persist- 
ing zeal he labored. Finally, as the fruits of his efforts the 
States authorized delegates to convene, and they did meet in 
Philadelphia, on the 14th of May, 1787. This Convention 
deliberated and sat until the 17th of September of the same 
year. Of this body he was a member. 

The Virginia plan and the plan of Mr. Charles Pinckney of 
South Carolina, and what was called the Jersey plan presented 
by Mr. Patterson, were all submitted and discussed. The Vir- 
ginia plan gave supreme authority in all national matters with 
a negative on the State laws and with express authority to use 
the public force against a delinquent State, while the Jersey 
plan made one single legislature, and among other peculiar 
and impractical features acknowledged the sovereignty of the 
States. On the adoption of one of these plans the Convention 
was much divided. They were both dangerous. The Virginia 
one, as Hamilton said, was "to enact civil war." The other 
led to anarchy. The dissolution of the Convention was feared. 

Hamilton stood alone, and at this critical moment he pre- 
sented his own plan. Mr. Madison has said of it that it was 



"so prepared that it might have gone into immediate effect if 
it had been adopted." Read it now, and read it side by side 
with the Constitution, and we can at once see how near the 
one is the counterpart of the other. It was changed and modi- 
fied to meet conflicting opinions and to avoid objections, but 
as an entire paper the resemblance remains. It is a marvelous 
production of intellect and wisdom. No such thing was ever 
done before. No such plan of nationality was ever projected 
by the reason or wit of man. That it could have thus been 
done passed human understanding. It is the best adjusted 
scheme for composing all differences in dispute and reconcil- 
ing all points of contention that could have been suggested. 
The danger that attended the execution of the National powers 
and the existence of State authority he foresaw and dealt with. 
The fierce trial through which we have just gone he predicted 
and provided for. State sovereignty he regarded as the seed 

of anarchy. 

" Tractas et incedis per ignes 
Suppositos cineri doloso." 

Had public men in authority heeded his warning and re- 
pelled that dangerous element, the war that well nigh destroyed 
us would never have happened. But the value of his wisdom 
is seen and felt in the power that was retained to assert the 
national authority and maintain the national life. How finely 
he expresses the spirit of our Government, which is the spirit 
of our people, when he said, "We are now forming a repub- 
lican Government. Real liberty is neither found in despotism 
nor in the extremes of democracy, but in moderate govern- 
ment." "Those who mean to form a solid republican Govern- 
ment ought to proceed to the confines of another government. 
As long as ofifices are open to all men and no constitutional 
rank is established, it is pure republicanism. But if we incline 
too much to democracy we shall soon shoot into a monarchy."' 

This was but the echo of what he had written and published 
when he was but seventeen years old. 

" But a representative democracy, where the right of elec- 
tion is well secured and regulated, and the exercise of the 
legislative, executive, and judicial authorities is vested in select 
persons chosen really and not nominally by the people, will in 



my opinion be most likely to be happy, regular, and durable." 
But as to pure democracies, he said, " No position in politics 
is more false than this. The ancient democracies did not pos- 
sess one feature of good government. Their very character 
was tyranny, their figure deformity. The true principle of a 
republic is that the people should choose whom they please to 
govern them. Representation is imperfect in proportion as 
the current of popular favor is checked. This great power of 
free government, popular election, should be practically pure, 
and the most unbounded liberty allowed." 

These expressions of his thoughts and convictions uttered 
by him in the debates and discussions in the Convention and 
elsewhere, I give, that it may be seen how clear and well de- 
fined then were his ideas of the use and beauty of popular 
liberty and popular suffrage to express popular will and main- 
tain public order and secure private rights and enforce public 
and private duties. They are all plain enough to us now, but 
then men were startled with them. No such thoughts of 
organized popular power to produce such stable results for 
national ends had ever before then been enforced and uttered. 

To all but to him they were ideal and theoretical. Now 
they are real — institutional, practical, common. 

Then there were but three millions of people for whom the 
Government was provided, but he pointed out that it was pre- 
pared for an empire of millions. He said, " We have now 
three millions of people ; in twenty-five years we shall have 
six ; in forty years nine millions." And now we have over 
forty millions, and at the same ratio of increase, at the close of 
this century it will be a hundred millions, and by the year 1930 
it will be swollen to the enormous number of two hundred 
and forty-six millions, nearly equal to the present population 
of Europe ! When we contemplate this in its almost super- 
human and unexampled growth we can feel a sense of grati- 
tude and awe for the genius of that one man who thus foresaw 
the needs of such a people and provided from the chaotic frag- 
ments of its early being the form and order of government 
that made it a nation and prepared the way for its growth and 
the preservation of its rights and liberties. 



lO 

His intellectual vision could see the promised land he was 
not to enter. Thus he prophesied, as if inspired with super- 
natural power. 

The Constitution was adopted, and to that great paper is 
appended the names of George Washington, ]3enjamin Franklin, 
and Alexander Hamilton, a conjunction of human greatness, 
of human wisdom, and human genius never before so united. 
Then began his real labor. With his pen, with his speech, and 
with his personal influence in the New York Convention and 
elsewhere he was tireless. In the Federalist, written mainly by 
him, aided in part by Mr. Madison and Mr. Jay, he expounded 
those doctrines that were to secure the adoption of the Con- 
stitution. For all time those papers will remain as the just 
and true exposition of its purpose and fitness for its end. 
Other papers he prepared and issued, and all to effect the 
same result. 

From his pen flowed limpid streams of pure thought and 
demonstration on those high themes of public right and 
private duty that has never been surpassed and which he sub- 
mitted to the reason and the moral sense of the nation. When 
Congress first assembled it enacted and proposed for the rati- 
fication of the States the first ten amendments to the Consti- 
tution. All but one of them were contained in the declaration 
and amendments before offered by Hamilton in the Convention 
of New York. 

President Washington was inaugurated, and Mr. Hamilton 
was chosen by him to occupy the post of danger and difficulty 
— the Treasury. All other positions as compared with it then 
were mere formalities of state. 

The first important act was the organization of his depart- 
ment, and to this day the order and discipline he established 
stands untouched, and is admitted to be perfect and complete 
for all the purpose of its vast and intricate necessities. The 
adjustment of the finances of the nation was the great task 
that he was to execute. The war had left the country deluged 
with valueless paper and weighed down with debt. The Con- 
federation and the States were alike crippled with what were 
then debts of vast amount. To the cry of the dishonest he 
would not listen. He proclaimed that the public debt was the 



1 1 

price of our liberty, and it must be accounted for. Public 
honor and private morals alike demanded its payment. Fur- 
thermore, he advocated the assumption by the nation of the 
State debts incurred in the prosecution of the war, and after 
angry and fierce resistance he sustained himself and prevailed, 
and his measures were all adopted. He always prevailed, for 
he appealed to the conscience and moral sense of the people 
to scorn dishonor and uphold justice. His plans were pros- 
perous, and soon the credit of the whole country rose ; confi- 
dence was established, tranquillity existed in every avenue of 
public and private affairs. 

His reports to Congress were numerous and frequent. They 
were submitted to stern and searching legislative and popular 
criticism. They are now, and they will be to the end of our 
national life, and far beyond it, memorials of the marvelous 
knowledge, wisdom, and thought of this wonderful man. 
What they maintained and propounded became the fundamen- 
tal law of the land, and through them we secured, and, as long 
as they are observed, will retain the vigorous national life we 
now enjoy. All concerns of the public administration were 
treated of by him. The mint, the currency, public debt, pub- 
lic credit, public loans, and the foundation of national banks, 
foreign and internal commerce, the laws of navigation, foreign 
and internal taxes and duties, public highways, internal im- 
provements, the American system of protection for domestic 
industry, the public lands, the organization of the army and 
navy, the foundation of a military school at West Point, the 
extinction of foreign title to and authority over dominions 
within our natural territorial limits, the disposition of the 
Indian tribes, the rights of belligerents and neutrals, the 
rights and duties of Stafbsand their citizens, the establishment 
of the national judicial aumorky, and the reorganization of it 
as the sole arbiter in disputed questions of constitutional con- 
struction, which he pronounced to be, what it has been and is, 
the citadel of public justice and public purity; the liberation 
of the slaves, the naturalization of foreigners — all of these 
were the subject of his thoughtful consideration. 

Sovereignty he believed and taught was of necessity vested 
in the United States as the supreme authority of the nation. 



12 

To the States he conceded rights that were to be held invio- 
late and inviolable. Local authority must be maintained to 
establish and preserve local order, local protection, and local 
relief. That was needed for the peace of society and to secure 
the possession and enjoyment of private property and personal 
individual rights, and in a vast territory like ours, as it then 
was, with a scattered population and with imperfect means of 
intercourse, it is also essential, as a political element, to excite 
and keep alive a public feeling, and to interest men in the sup- 
port of all government, general and local, and to check the 
undue exercise or action of national authority through unrea- 
sonable and irresponsible agents. State sovereignty he saw 
and said would lead to anarchy, and that he resisted. The 
object of government was unity of power in one supreme head 
for the sake of peace, for the sake of order, for the sake of 
law, for the general common good, and for the preservation of 
personal liberty. 

I shall not even allude to the parties that were then created, 
or the men who led those parties. I shall not speak of those 
contentions. The motives and purposes and actions of other 
men toward him or his opinions of or acts toward them I 
shall hold beneath the dignity of this occasion. All of that I 
shall dismiss and pass by. I must speak of him and treat him 
as he would have me do if I were now to speak in his great 
presence — conflicting with the fame of no one, not arraigning 
the opinions or acts or motives of any man. We are in a 
purer, higher atmosphere of thought and reflection. I am here 
to recount the grand things that he did, and to remind you of 
the great debt we all owe to him. I shall not compare him 
with any one. The plane of his nature was distinct and apart 
from that of those around him, " for one star differeth from 
another star in glory." 

While he was at the head of the Treasury intricate questions 
of foreign policy arose which were submitted to his considera- 
tion. The treaty with Great Britain was the occasion of much 
public excitement. It concerned our foreign commerce, our 
internal affairs, and the final adjustment of all outstanding 
questions of dispute between us and the Mother Country. In 
settling this his advice guided the Administration. 



13 

At the* same time our relations with France was a subject of 
serious importance. The world was shocked and startled with 
the great Revolution. The public men v/ho rose on the ruins 
of that ancient monarchy would have forced us into an offen- 
sive and defensive alliance with them. The popular sentiment 
here sympathized with the people of France, and our sense of 
gratitude for the aid that Frenchmen had given us, prompted 
a public wish to be united with them. But against this heat 
and frenzy Hamilton opposed his judgment, and so shaped the 
course of the Administration that we were not entangled with 
those contentions that soon made a continent one great camp, 
and all of Christian Europe a battle-field. 

" Storms and darkness, under cover of which innocent blood 
was shed like water, fields were fought, frenzies of hatred 
gathered among nations, such as cried to heaven for help and 
for retribution." This he foretold, and this, too, he avoided. 

But I am admonished by the multitude of events that he 
ruled, and which I must relate if I continue thus, and so I 
must pause. He had frequently resolved to retire. The 
growth of his family and his diminished means warned him. 
The object he had in accepting the Treasury was attained. 
The methods he had proposed had been accepted and were 
prospering. The relief he had promised had been secured, 
and his end was answered ; besides, all the contentions of pub- 
lic life were odious to him. By the persuasion of Washington 
he had remained, but in 1795 he surrendered his seat in -the 
Cabinet, and retired to follow his profession and to enjoy the 
tranquillity and happiness of his home. Now, let me read to 
you what Washington at this time wrote to him : — 

"Philadelphia, February 2d, 1795. 

"Dear Sir : After so long an experience of your public ser- 
vices, I am naturally led, at this moment of your departure 
from office (which it has always been my wish to prevent), to 
review them. 

" In every relation which yon have borne to inc, I have found 
that vciy confidence in your talents, exertions, and integrity has 
been well placed. 



14 

" I the more freely render this testimony of my approbation, 
because I speak from opportunities of information which can 
not deceive nic, and which furnish satisfactory proof of your 
title to public regard. 

" My most earnest wishes for your happiness will attend you 
in your retirement, and you may assure yourself of the sincere 
esteem, regard, and friendship of, dear sir, , 

" Your affectionate, 

" George Washington." 

He resumed the practice of his profession, and in it he pros- 
pered. The necessities of his position and his personal asso- 
ciations, combined with his anxiety to see the administration 
of the Government properly conducted, still obliged him to 
take part in the selection of candidates for public office. Of 
this interest he could not divest himself It was a part of his 
nature. He was born to lead and think and feel for the public. 
In those days party feeling was strong, even to personal vio- 
lence. We do not know of such bitterness. Then it was 
degenerated into rancor and malice. The institutions he 
bestowed on us have civilized aud humanized men. His 
opposition to some aspiring men, and his open censure of 
their ways and purposes and actions as being hurtful to the 
general public good, and the fact that his opposition was de- 
struction of their hopes, excited a hatred for him that was 
deep and fierce. 

It was resolved that he should be removed. A man of note, 
but of desperate fortunes and wicked ways of life, sought a 
quarrel with him, and called him to account on an indefinite 
charge of having spoken of him words of condemnation. It 
resulted in a challenge. I do not propose to enlarge on this 
sorrowful, wretched subject, but I will say that at this day few 
men would hold themselves responsible thus on such a com- 
plaint and so presented. The purpose was to hav^e his life. 
Then men answered to such calls under an impulse of military 
honor. We had just emerged from a long war with the habits 
and principles of the camp infused into our social, personal, 
and public life. He met this adversary — a man prepared by 
practice and determination of purpose — who, WMth cold, merci- 
less deliberation, murdered him. 



15 

" That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire 
That staggered thus his person," 

The man who did this act turned aside from the scene of 
his guilt to meet a punishment that few have suffered. He 
lingered through a prolonged life of bad deeds and meanness, 
an object of detestation in this community, who looked upon 
him to the end of his evil days with mingled feelings of con- 
temptuous abhorrence and scorn. 

Thus passed away this soldier, this patriot, this orator, this 
statesman, subtle in knowledge of mankind — this philosopher 
and perfect citizen. There was nothing vile or mean in his 
nature. All was heroic and noble. His intellect was clear 
and high, his understanding sound, his heart pure, his will 
imperial and commanding. " Jiistum et tcnaceni propositi.'' 
'^ I must not omit to make mention of one other conspicuous 
feature of his character. He was not inflamed with that sense 
of ^elf-sufficient conceit which scoffs at faith and glories in 
unbelief. With all of his triumphant genius and splendor and 
force of intellect he believed with humility, and bowed with 
submissive awe. He had read and learned that " Blessed is 
the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor 
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the 
scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in 
his law doth he meditate day and night." 

He did not " sit in the seat of the scornful." 

There, then, behold this presentment of him. Reverence 
him ; obey his precepts, and glory in the result of his grand 
labors, and be equal to the duties of that great citizenship of 
this mighty nation, which he of all men was the first to secure 
for you. His fame can not pass away. It will last forever. It 
will be as plain and enduring to all mankind hereafter as if it 
were written on the face of heaven and every letter were 
a star. 

V 



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